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Windows
Sitemap REALSTIC WINDOWS IN RAPTURE ' Windows Were an Important Element in The BioShock Rapture Games. * See Also Undersea_Windows * See Also Construction (Raptures) * See Also Real_World and Real Physics --- --- --- --- --- ' "Small Windows Are Good" - Bill McDonagh (when not drunk Remember, Ken Levoine year later (2015) TOUTS his 'Authentic Diversity' themes and avoidance of Stereotypes ... (While trying to get a new gig as a game producer after Rockstar dumps him after his Infinite BS flop.)) : ''' Pressure outside at typical Rapture depth(my practical Sci-Fi estimate 600 feet) is around 280 PSI (force in pounds per square inch). '''DO the Math : A 3 foot by 5 foot window has (36 x 60 inches = 2160 square inches Times 280 pounds for each square inch = 302 TONs pressing on its full flat surface. Do you wonder any more why MY extended level diagrams have such massively thick walls ? They need to support THAT IMMENSE REAL PRESSURE. Think about those windows in Neptunes Bounty - being 30 feet wide - How much force THOSE have pressing on them !!! So how absurd (and the 'Infinitized' DLC Rapture showing even LARGER windows). Sometimes 'artists license' turns into pure terrible/incompetant Fantasy, which is bad for a game originally supposed to be even marginally Sci-Fi based. So, for the designs to work : Many small panes, of thick 'glass' (or rather thick AND requiring something MUCH stronger than glass), AND sturdy framing, with lots of support for those many small window panes, AND use of 'compression curves' (arch construction) used 'as much as possible', AND no (expensive) windows (or only small ones -- where big ones really aren't needed - like in the Neptunes Bounty industrial complex). --- --- --- A Few Things to 'Correct' - Those Impossible Windows : * Flat plate 'glass' in Neptunes Bounty is ~10 inches thick (of those 18ftx30ft panes - my estimate by visual inspection) - 9+15/2 = a 12 foot span (moment arm) average Shear Force at its supported edge. * At 600 ft depth 281.315 psi ocean pressure (linearly increases with depth) THAT IS 10925.28 Tons of Force upon its entire surface (by comparison, an entire fully loaded Saturn 5 Apollo rocket weighs 3050 tons) * Recommendation - Smaller span of windows where 'impressive view' is less needed (or no windows at all). * The book mentions how expensive the materials for the windows were, and an industrial site like Neptune's Bounty would NOT have money wasted on it, especially for huge windows that don't actually look out on much. Small port-holes would have been sufficient, though they would NOT have looked as impressive in the game. * If large windows are required for aesthetics, then break them up into smaller panes with more of the thick metal framing to distribute the forces. * Recommendation - Curved windows, so arch converts shear force to compression force (to use the materials strength) * Recommendation - Thicker windows 'glass' when a large pane is needed (unfortunately causes more distortion of view - more expense to make it transparently clear). * I suppose you could also have Neptunes Bounty be alot 'higher' in Rapture (like on side of Mt Ryan or one of the 'ridges') with depth something like 100-200 feet (fish are normally closer to surface anyway...) * Scotty hasn't Time Traveled Backward In Time and given Ryan Industries the formula for 'Transparent Aluminum' yet (besides that wasn't subjected to the pressure forces in Rapture at 600 feet depth anyway). --- --- --- Windows, Lots of Windows (as in TOO MANY done in-game) : Many of the 'Art Deco' buildings built in the late-20s/30s/postwar-40s tried to maximize their windows because Air Conditioning was still new and expensive (for cooling, when Steam Heat was more developed and used for systematic building heating - Steam was even provided from nearby utility company plants in Cities, which is still done). H-shaped structures, setbacks, internal courts, and small profile towers were frequently used to achieve a greater window availability/access (versus monolithic modern building where windows don't open at all). In Rapture, windows are a liability and add great expense (because they have to be built strong enough to hold out that extreme water pressure). The buildings seen in the distance, in the outside views, have far too many windows (usually are far too Tall also) - row after row of repeated floors, covered in windows -- which does not reflect the design of *ANY* of the buildings we actually are inside of in any of the Rapture games. ) The MMORPG Rapture will be a bit more conservative - How is a Tall building 'special' when ALL the buildings are also Tall ?? SO Lots more squat buildings (they are cheaper to build), so that the 'tall' buildings (with 20 stories now being 'tall') will be special. Windows will be fewer and better spaced and positioned in accordance to the required structural thickness of walls. So straight off - FEWER FLOORS - FEWER WINDOWS. We might even get into some of those taller buildings where the interiors have regular windows in the walls like all those building we are shown out there. --- --- --- 'A Cityscape With Lots Of (As In WAY TOO MANY) Windows ' : Windows still have to be backed by thick concrete - the city CAN'T made of too much (too expensive) metal, or it would look quite different (some of the concept pictures showed that). The concrete construction still causes lots of differences from the typical 30s/40s era skyscrapers (the in-game outside views) usually showed. Those Caricature Windows ... The standard taller-than-wide building covered with numerous fairly-small closely-spaced windows - we see row after row of those on building facings (skyscraper style) off in the distance out in the ocean (usually many many floors of them). WHERE did we EVER look out any such windows from the interiors like THOSE buildings in the game ???? Only a few interiors ever had stacked near-identical floors (and those counting only half a dozen floors). We look out through porthole windows (and bigger oblong portal windows), long multi-paned (often curved) ones, ridiculously huge walls sized windows (and many buildings we WERE in had exterior walls devoid of any windows ((even though looking back from a viaduct, that same building was shown covered in windows --- Not actually critical to the gameplay, but inconsistent and disconcerting.)) Windows are a potential weak point in an underwater structure, and costly to make properly. Rapture walls have to be thick and strong to handle the outside pressure, and anchoring windows into them has limited solutions. Windows located near corners are more problematic - requiring special very-expensive construction (masses of metal to be 'thin' enough and still support properly). Art Deco wrap-around-corner type window are even more of a problem (we see them in some prime real estate, but they wouldn't likely be used systematically in less 'ritzy' locales). Fewer windows would be the rule (as compared to an above-water city skyscraper). Those huge walls of small windows on every building in the skyline just would not be practical ($$$) to allow Rapture to have been built with the money available. I've even suggested that many of THOSE views are of FAKE windows done for effect (particularly on the thinning top 'towers' - as much as 1/3rd the buildings height -- again those Being For Effect). With the way water rapidly absorbs light, those distant buildings all have to be closer than what those views imply anyway. So they would be Caricatures after all. MMORPG - fewer floors, fewer windows (see my level maps for examples - usually of 'adjacent buildings' and missing floors you never got to go to in the building you WERE in) --- --- --- --- --- . .